Letters to the editor for Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Tuesday

Oct 2, 2012 at 2:00 AM

Where is the outrage? The day after four Americans were killed in Libya, President Obama said there will be "bumps in the road" concerning our Middle East policy. Well, those bumps are the gravestones of those martyred Americans.

Where is the outrage? The day after four Americans were killed in Libya, President Obama said there will be "bumps in the road" concerning our Middle East policy. Well, those bumps are the gravestones of those martyred Americans.

On "The Five," Democrat Bob Beckel remarked that Marines couldn't have stopped 100 al-Qaida fighters. Who is he kidding? I come from a family of Marines. The moment an al-Qaida leg came over the wall, it would have been shot off. But, excuse me — I'm mistaken. The security guards protecting our embassy were not allowed to use live ammunition. And I'm supposed to feel protected by this administration? Well, I know of a bridge in Brooklyn "»

Marilyn K. Sterns

Washingtonville

Millions unemployed, 46 million on food stamps, $16 trillion in debt, 10 million homeowners under water, $4 a gallon for gas, and President Obama flies from coast to coast for fundraising.

He gives Brazil billions to drill while he limits drilling here. Obamacare will eliminate hundreds of billions from Medicare. The Appeaser-in-Chief cannot utter the words "Muslim terrorists"; instead, they are all "lone wolves." The Nobel Peace Prize winner brought more death and destruction by encouraging the "Arab Spring" that turned into the Arab Genocide in Syria; the Muslim Brotherhood takeover in the Middle East; and infiltration in the U.S.

Iran, Russia and China are laughing at the naive professor. Why are Obama's college records sealed? Ask his lap dog, the media. Obama bashes the rich while he clings to Hollywood's money, just as he clings to his terrorist friends, Rev. Wrong and Fannie's thieves (Johnson and Raines). Obama skillfully picked the ineffective tax cheater Geithner, the "Fast & Furious" AG Holder who refused to prosecute Wall Street thieves or the Black Panthers for voter intimidation, and GE's Immelt, his economic adviser, who paid $0 in taxes on GE's $4 billion profits.

T. Peleg

Pine Bush

Anyone who does not believe that the liberal press is in President Obama's back pocket only had to watch "60 Minutes" on CBS Sunday night. While Gov. Romney was grilled with specific questions that demanded exact solutions and figures, Obama was asked simple cookie-cutter questions for which he had obviously prepared answers.

The press has, from the start, put a spin on Romney's words to make him look like he's out of touch with the middle class, when just the opposite is true.

What has Obama done for the middle class except to raise our taxes and our debt, and force our small businesses to close up because they can't afford Obamacare?

It's time for us to think for ourselves and stop being manipulated by an ever-growing government with socialist aspirations. I still believe that it is unconstitutional for the government to make you buy insurance from a third party, no matter what the socialists call it. A tax, really?

In November, let's think for ourselves, take our government back and kick the socialists out.

Gary Klein

Monroe

Our ambassador and three other Americans were murdered in the terrorist attack in Libya. From the beginning, we have been misled by our president and members of his administration, especially Susan Rice, on four different Sunday TV shows. It was because of a laughable trailer for a YouTube video, they told the world. It wasn't terrorism. Our president, who earlier had criticized Romney for "shooting first and aiming second," did just that with this lie about the video before he had the facts. Now the facts are in and press secretary Jay Carney, who repeated the same story about the video at a press briefing, now says it is "self-evident" that the attack was an act of terrorism.

What's also self-evident is Obama's failure to lead in the Middle East, from his apologetic Cairo speech to the embassy attack in Libya. He was going to stem the rise of the seas, reduce the deficit, and make Muslims love us. None of those things has happened. The Mideast is literally on fire. Obama's response was to head for Las Vegas for cash and later play with Jay-Z and Beyoncé. We need a serious president.

Jeff Topps

Washingtonville

President Obama is a suave, articulate, handsome man who has been groomed by the hard-line, progressive, rich Democrats. They did a good job. He has a different "new" vision for the USA, however. Europe is suffering from his kind of vision and we will, too. Capitalism and our Constitution made this country into a successful, respected and powerful nation. It did not fail us; Congress has failed us. Years of overspending our money, gaining power for themselves and making careers out of their positions as our senators and representatives, giving our taxes away and neglecting our needs. They do not live by the laws they made.

Many are not ethical, honest or trustworthy. With the billions given to other countries over the decades we could have had health care for everyone years ago and our infrastructure would not be crumbling, our schools would not be substandard, and our factories would not be idle. They cannot see their failure nor admit to it. God has been taken from much of our lives. Some change is good, but they have gone too far. Remember in November.

Elizabeth Nielsen

Highland Falls

By any and every metric, the Obama administration has proven to be an abject failure. Moreover, the philosophies of the president are empirically harmful to our country, her citizens, her economy and our allies.

Domestically, our debt has now eclipsed our GDP, many millions are on government assistance, and an end to joblessness is nowhere in sight.

Obamacare exists only with 1,700 waivers and without the public option the left wanted so desperately.

Our European allies no longer trust us and any dialogue is stilted. Our lone ally in the Middle East is begging for dialogue as she is surrounded by countries bent on her destruction. A nuclear Iran is imminent and 20 countries across the region are in chaos brought about largely by American disengagement and appeasement.

Obama has asked America for more time; another term.

America doesn't have any more time!

Quit hitting the snooze button, America. Regardless of your opinion of Romney, a possible success is better than a proven failure.

Steve Sanford

Slate Hill

While campaigning in Florida, President Obama was interviewed in a Spanish-language forum by Univision News. Because immigration reform was not accomplished in his first four years in office, the host said to him, "You promised, and a promise is a promise. You didn't keep that promise." I thought his tone of entitlement was disrespectful, and that it insulted the integrity of the Oval Office. Maybe a thank you, or a gesture of gratitude should have been in order for all of the social benefits taken and received. Perhaps this host and the Latino community he represents should have been more considerate of our country having higher priority issues such as fighting the war on terrorism for the past decade, a stagnant, weak economy and record unemployment. We are currently represented by the most dysfunctional Congress ever, and no one person is possibly capable of correcting the magnitude or volume of such complicated problems.

For those who claim our immigration policies are outdated and broken: Furnish facts. Stop demanding and pressing our president to grant citizenship by invoking his executive privilege.

William Hernandez

Newburgh

President Obama has blamed the anti-Islam video for inciting violence in the Middle East, where our Ambassador and brave military men were dragged through the streets and cowardly murdered by a Muslim mob on this past Sept. 11. His own State Department has claimed that there is evidence that this was a coordinated attack in conjunction with the 9/11 anniversary.

With no time to meet with Netanyahu, leader of Israel, the sole democracy and our only true ally in the Middle East, the campaigner-in-chief jets off to field softball questions from Letterman and to party with Jay Z and Beyoncé. While the economy is in the dumpster, we shouldn't forget the importance of national security. Do you really feel safe with him behind the wheel? His vitriol toward Republican opponents and those in the media not worshipping at his altar far outweighs his mild rebuke of Iran's president, who was given a forum by the useless U.N. to spew his dangerous anti-Jewish propaganda (on Yom Kippur no less). He shows his hypocrisy by lambasting the House of Representatives for inaction and adjourning early (not mentioning the Democratic led-Senate, which did the same) while heading off to the campaign trail or a golf course.

Joe Ditizio

Thompson Ridge

So Mitt Romney thinks those who are supported by the government and pay no taxes won't vote for him. What a doubter. I'm sure the bigwigs of corporations such as AT&T and GE, which pay no federal taxes yet receive tax subsidies, and of banks such as Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, etc., who caused the international economic collapse through fraud, and then got oodles of our tax dollars to boot, will vote for Romney.

And let's not forget it was President Obama who, like W., bailed out these crooks, signed an even more tyrannical so-called Patriot Act and unconstitutional legislation allowing the president to imprison anyone he deems to be a terrorist without trial, and supports nuclear energy, fracking, offshore drilling, etc. Socialist? Only toward the swindle-aires.

So if you'd like to not be robbed of your civil liberties, your payments into Medicare and Social Security, and clean air and water, whom to vote for? How about Jill Stein, the Green Party presidential candidate? Haven't heard of her? Of course not — her campaign accepts no corporate donations.

Barbara Kidney

Town of Newburgh

These troubling times provide us with an opportunity to elect quality individuals who can put the needs of the many over the needs of the few. Those candidates, believe it or not, are out there. One of those upstanding candidates is James Skoufis, who is running to represent the 99th Assembly District, which includes communities stretching from Stony Point to Wawayanda.

As James' former high school teacher and an advocate for 100,000 working people throughout the Hudson Valley, I have had the pleasure of watching James mature into a fine young man and an outstanding advocate for those whom he represents.

As a student in my advanced placement class, he earned a straight A average. As a member of the Woodbury Town Board, he has gone out of his way to communicate with his constituents and reached out to residents displaced or harmed by Hurricane Irene last year.

I believe that James Skoufis is the perfect candidate for the 99th Assembly seat and encourage all of you who live in that district to give James your unqualified support.